


I <3 U

by AquaMarinara



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Baking, Competitive Jughead, Competitive Ronnie, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-10 12:02:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12298848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AquaMarinara/pseuds/AquaMarinara
Summary: “I challenge you,” he points his spatula at her as if he’s holding a dagger, “to a bake-off.”~~~Jughead Jones isn't the best cook. He knows that. But that doesn't mean he's going to admit it to anyone, let alone Veronica Lodge. And if he manages to impress his girlfriend while defeating her brunette best friend once and for all, well, that's just an added bonus.





	I <3 U

**Author's Note:**

> Me? Procrastinating by writing a one-shot? NEVER...;)
> 
> A few days ago I saw a picture on Lili's Instastory of a dessert that inspired this whole thing.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it!

“Jughead Jones cooking breakfast? I never thought I’d see the day.” Ronnie enters the kitchen, a smug grin brightening her features as the sunlight streams in through the window behind her.

“Ron,” her beanie-wearing roommate replies with a sly smile and faux sincerity, “I cook all the time.”

Archie snorts from his seat at the kitchen counter. “Of course you do, bud.”

“I do!” Jughead argues, tugging at the black curl hanging in front of his right eye. He turns around to watch his breakfast sizzling on the stove. “Right, Betts?”

“What exactly am I agreeing to?” his blonde girlfriend asks as she slips out of their shared bedroom. They’d only moved in together recently, deciding that splitting the cozy two-bedroom apartment with Archie and Veronica would save them all a great amount of rent money.

She wraps her arms around his waist and kisses the exposed skin on the back of his neck. Lifting herself up on to her tip-toes, Betty peers over his shoulder and grimaces. “Jug, you do realize that those pancakes are burnt, right?”

Jughead can hear his raven-haired friend snort from her seat at the counter next to Archie. Whipping around, he glares at her over Betty’s blonde head of hair. “As if you could do any better, Ron. We all know you’re pretty much inept when it comes to the culinary arts.”

“That may be true, Jughead, but at least I can keep a few pancakes from burning.”

“Oh yeah?” He counters, clearly enjoying himself. “I challenge you,” he points his spatula at her as if he’s holding a dagger, “to a bake-off.”

“You’re on,” she replies as she holds his gaze. Never one to be outdone, she whips out her own sword, a freshly-polished switchblade.

“V, I told you not to carry that around anymore,” Betty complains in outrage. After a close encounter last month, Betty had gifted her best friend some pepper spray, making her promise to replace the knife with the canister.

“Oh Betty, a Latina woman never gives her knives up. Besides, it’s just so much more useful than that silly spray,” she scolds the blonde as she proceeds to stab through the first apple she sees in the basket on the granite countertop, lifting the fruit up as a prize with a proud smile.

~~~

Veronica had dragged Jughead to the grocery store, claiming their apartment was lacking the correct supplies she needed to create her “masterpiece”. Before leaving, the four friends had outlined the rules of the competition. Betty wrote them down on the whiteboard hanging on their fridge:

  1. Betty and Archie are the judges. They can not and will not be bribed.
  2. Each contestant has an hour and a half to create his or her dessert
  3. Each contestant has a $20 budget for groceries (they would all split the cost, and Jughead is already mourning the loss of a precious $10. That kind of money could buy him pure bliss—aka a few of Pop’s burgers.)



And now, a half hour later, Jughead finds himself in the icing aisle at Whole Foods. His shopping cart is full of the essential ingredients for a vanilla sponge cake: flour, eggs, milk, sugar, butter, baking powder, and vanilla extract. It had seemed simple enough when he’d looked the recipe up on his way to the store. Jughead knew he wasn’t an amazing cook, let alone a decent baker. Even though he knew he was going to need a bit more than some sponge cake to win, he wasn’t about to go all Cake Boss on everyone.

The rules stated that the contestants couldn’t bribe the judges, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t play to their favorites. After searching the aisle for a few minutes, Jughead finally spots a tube of icing in Archie’s favorite orange hue. It almost matches the ginger’s hair color. Before proceeding to the checkout aisles, he snatches up a pipette with a tip that pumps the icing out in a flowery shape. Betty’ll love that.

~~~

“Alright contestants,” Betty addresses her boyfriend and best friend as she puts her finger on the timer’s start button. “Ready, set, go!” The clock makes an audible beeping sound as it begins counting down from 01:30:00.

She and Archie retreat to their respective bedrooms, deciding it’s best if they aren’t witnesses to the mess each one of their significant others is creating in the kitchen. They want to keep the results of the bake-off a surprise.

Jughead can feel himself struggling to measure out the ingredients, but as he looks over to Ronnie’s side of the kitchen, he sighs in relief; she isn’t much better off. Her eyebrows are in a knot as she stares in confusion at the scattered cocoa powder around her. How she’s managed to make such a mess already, he’ll never know.

“Ron, I’m pretty sure the cocoa’s supposed to go inside the bowl, not around it,” he comments as he stirs his eggs into the mixture of butter and sugar.

A wooden spoon flies over his head as he ducks, missing him by a few inches. “Shut up, Forsythe.”

“Betty told you?” he asks, horrified. How could she have betrayed him like that? How could she have revealed his biggest secret to the least trustworthy brunette in all of New York City?

“Of course not, silly. I saw your driver’s license that one time you left it out on the entrance table.”

Jughead curses under his breath and turns away from her as she sticks her tongue out at him in jest. 

50 minutes later, Jughead’s staring through the glass oven door as the cake slowly stops rising. He doesn’t know how to check if it’s fully cooked, but he sure as hell isn’t about to burn it—Veronica’s criticisms about his poor pancakes replaying in his mind. And so he pulls it out of the oven when it turns a bit golden, hoping he doesn’t burn his fingers on the pan. Although he’s wearing oven mitts, they’re old and frayed, and not exactly good at their job anymore. He deposits the scalding tin on the trivet he’d already placed on the counter and proceeds to stare at his creation for a few seconds. There isn’t much time left for decorations, and he doesn’t even have a solid idea yet.

He searches for inspiration, dark green eyes scanning the apartment. They land on the small teddy bear lying on their couch, its soft white fur stark against the black leather of the sofa. Jughead had bought it for Betty a few months ago after they’d both confessed their “I love you”s in a small souvenir shop. Its red shirt had “I <3 NYC” written on it in white block lettering. Betty had adored the stuffed animal when she’d first unwrapped it, and ever since then it had found a home in their favorite little corner of the couch where they snuggled up to watch horror movies together.

The writing on the bear’s shirt is iconic, a symbol of New York City itself, yet it also holds a significant amount of meaning for the couple. Without thinking twice, Jughead begins to squirt dots of icing around the border of the cake—a frame for the main attraction. He pushes his hair out of his face with the back of his dirty hand before bending down to begin decorating again. This time, he squeezes out

I

<3

U

down the center of the cake. As he’s finishing off the U, a loud timer goes off on the counter. He and Ronnie hide their desserts as Betty comes rushing out of her room. Archie’s red hair sticks out of his own doorway, and he follows closely behind her.

They sit down excitedly, anxious to see the creations. 

“I’m not going first,” Ronnie spits out after Jughead makes no move to reveal his cake.

“I was going to save the best for last,” he snickers. “But alas, the queen has commanded I present my exquisite dessert first, and so I shall oblige.” Jughead can feel the heat of her glare burning through his skin as he pulls the cake out from behind the wall of stacked mixing bowls. He watches Betty’s face as he lowers it in front of the judges; her eyes widen in recognition and they travel up to his face. Her lush lips part slightly, as if she’s about to say something, but instead she just stays frozen in awe.

“Aw, bro. I didn’t know you felt that way about me. But you should probably know, I already have a girlfriend.”

Jughead rolls his eyes, and Betty snaps out of her reverie. She jabs Archie with her elbow and breathlessly tells her boyfriend, “Jug, it’s amazing.”

“Babe, you haven’t even tried it yet.”

“Exactly! What if it tastes horrible!?” Veronica adds in outrage, not liking the look on Betty’s face. She knows that according to the blonde, Jug’s won the whole competition already.

Ignoring her best friend, Betty turns to her boyfriend. She slowly walks over to where he’s standing behind the counter and wraps her arms around his neck. “Is it…Is it inspired by the bear?” She looks up at him through her lashes, and he can’t help but notice the warmth that blooms in his heart.

“Of course, Bet” he doesn’t even get to finish saying her name before her lips crash into his, and his voice dies out. She can taste some of the cake batter on his tongue—he had licked the spoon earlier.

Veronica clears her throat, irritated by the sudden turn of events. The couple breaks apart and Jughead stares at the floor—he’d never really been one for PDA, not even in front of his best friends. Betty, on the other hand, is glowing.

“Sorry, Ron, but this is going to have to wait.” The blonde doesn’t look at her best friend, knowing she’ll only find disappointment etched into the brunette’s face. Grabbing Jughead by the wrist, Betty drags him into their room and closes the door behind her.

Before her senses are completely overwhelmed by Jughead Jones, Betty hears Veronica’s distressed voice yelling from the kitchen, “But you guys didn’t even get to try my red velvet cupcakes!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment any feedback you have; I live off of it!
> 
>  
> 
> PS: In case any of you were wondering, Blue Sunshine and Golden Rain should be updated pretty soon. Hopefully, this one-shot was enough to tide you over.
> 
> -M


End file.
